RESIDENT and teaching in Herefordshire for 38 years, I have been involved with groups ranging from the Hospital Trust to Oxfam, my Neighbourhood plan to the Credit Union as well as community choirs and local nature groups. I now hope to use my skills and local knowledge on behalf of residents of Herefordshire as your MP.

Initiatives such as the reopened racecourse and a new university or a city of culture bid are welcomed but it is the bread and butter issues that matter on a daily basis. Seven years of government cuts have seen local social care cut to the bone.

No 1 Ledbury Road, providing care and respite for severely handicapped children has closed. Library provision has been decimated. Charities from the Citizens Advice Bureau, Herefordshire Carers and SHYPP (Supported Housing for Young People Project) to the Courtyard and Music Pool have had their grants slashed.

Sale of council tenanted farms and other assets fail to plug the gap. Our local hospital, now thankfully out of special measures, posted a £20.5 million deficit last year and fails to meet A&E targets. Then there are the potholes…!

There is a better and a fairer way to run our County and our Country. Labour will restore public services in Herefordshire and across the nation by ensuring that those best able to pay will contribute.

If elected I will fight for the interests of Herefordshire within a powerful voting block not as a lone voice in the wilderness of the backbenches.